Hebrews 7:1-10 One Tenth of Everything

Observation: The Book of Hebrews talks about Melchizedek, a mysterious "king of righteousness" who appears in Genesis 14 with no genealogy (strange for Genesis) and who is also a priest. In Genesis, after winning a battle, Abraham gives Melchizedek the priest king one tenth (or a tithe) of the spoils. From an early Christian standpoint, it's not hard to see why New Testament writers were comparing this priest/king to Jesus. What strikes me is that Abraham doesn't do a deep dive into Melchizedek's family history or background before giving this gift. That's not even the point. He gives not because of Melchizedek's worthiness, but because he, Abraham, is thankful to God.

Application: "Ten percent of everything" is pretty steep. The latest stats of which I'm aware are that active members of Lutheran churches give an average of 2.5% of their income to the church, but it's been a number of years, so I suspect that's gone down. It's something many Christian leaders strive for: to give a tithe of all their income, not after tax but before, out of gratefulness to God. My family is close, but not quite there...and when the bills come pouring in, even what we do give is sometimes a leap of faith.

Although the Bible lifts up "tithing" many times as an example, it's not a magic number. For some families in dire financial straits, it would be a reckless decision to jump to a tithe and go deeper in debt or go without necessities. And for other families, honestly, ten percent is a pittance that would hardly be missed. Maybe God is challenging them more.

It's important to remember, too, that tithing is to God, not just to one congregation, and so any money that you freely give, for which you get nothing in return and which is doing God's will in the world, is part of your giving.

All that said, a tithe is a gesture of gratefulness. It's a decision to count your blessings--all of them--and decide ahead of time how much of what you've ben given will be passed on for God's purposes. It's a choice that instead of hoarding, we will circulate God's blessings.

Prayer: God, when I pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done," I sometimes don't mean it. Sorry. I know that if I really meant it, that would mean devoting all of my resources to making that happen, and sometimes I get scared and hold back some. But I want to keep praying it, because I want to want that, and to give back more of what is yours to make it happen. Amen.